Update for NDDC Managers’ Forum 23 April 2012 Laura Hall – Website Officer

Digital Dorset 84.2% of Dorset residents have broadband at home (ONS 2011 Internet use) More customers want to access DCC services via web (38.7%) than telephone (36.6%) (Citizens’ Panel 25, autumn 2012) Cost per: visit to dorsetforyou.com = 8p face-to-face contact = £7.40 telephone contact = £2.90 web visit nationally = 32p Projects like the Dorset Public Sector Network and faster broadband will make these channels more attractive and easier to use It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s cheaper and it’s available when and where customers want

Content review Spring-clean Fewer but more-targeted pages Improved search Optimised content Fewer but better-trained web editors extra support: Super super-users ongoing contact and training

NDDC Super-user group Refresher training Surgeries Content improvements - cutting down optimising deleting old/out-of-date content developing online forms Superuser meetings Super super-user group

Socitm survey – results and recommendations “Using the partnership site to make district and county council information accessible. Services are explained in general terms which are applicable across the council tier and the user then navigates to the individual council. This can involve a long trail to reach district level services - a good reason to consider the re-alignment of the site to be task-oriented which would shorten the journey for the user.” Action 1: Identify further areas where we can pursue this approach. Action 2: The Dorsetforyou localisation/personalisation project.

Socitm survey – results and recommendations Tasks assessed: Apply for a council job – no action required at this time Object to a planning application Action 3: Cassie Booth is currently coordinating a review of the Planning pages on Dorsetforyou.com as part of the overall site review. The key NDDC contact for this is Tim Bailey and the review is planned to be finished in June. Action 4: Richard Deakin from the Dorsetforyou Team to work with Tim Bailey to improve the online transactions related to planning.

Socitm survey – results and recommendations Find rubbish collection day Action 5: To respond to a negative comment from the reviewer about Christmas rubbish collection days – ensure the appropriate web editor uploads this information in by 2 December Pay council tax Action 6: Address the following issues: simplify the customer journey, make it clear how to get help with this if needed promote this task more highly within the site navigation improve online payment and account services and promote these

Socitm survey – results and recommendations Find opening times for local swimming pool Action 7: Improve the internal search results to find the appropriate pages and promote this task in other ways across the site. n.b. Improvements have already been made since November 2011 to simplify the customer journey from the home page to the two leisure centres’ web pages. Local democracy and participation review Action 8: Review Councillor pages to include details of which party they belong to in a more obvious way. This information is now included but could be in the title perhaps? Make it clear which party has overall control Consider ways to include user-generated content

Socitm survey – results and recommendations General promotion of top tasks on website Action 9: Dorsetforyou.com team to improve the ‘Online payments/services’ page – to make it easier to browse Action 10: Dorsetforyou.com team to investigate whether we can add the ‘My Local’ box to further landing pages or the blue ‘ribbon’ on every page. N.b. as part of the localisation work the localise box will be added to the blue margin on every page. Action 11: Analyse the data about North Dorset’s pages and ensure the customer journey to the top tasks is clear and direct. Also, establish a process for reviewing this on a monthly basis as top tasks can change.

Socitm survey – results and recommendations Location, Resilience and Accessibility All partners failed on ‘Location’ and ‘Resilience’. Action 12: Dorsetforyou to find out the key reasons for this and assign some actions across the site for all partners. NDDC failed on Accessibility although other partner councils passed which seems strange. Action 13: Laura Hall to find out why this is and work with the Web Editors and Super Users to improve accessibility on NDDC pages.

What is a ‘transaction’? request book report apply browse search download comment object sign up find out query pay check

The development plan for dorsetforyou.com Mobile site Localisation Personalisation Planning applications - search & comment functionality Continual improvement

90% of users of the site are either satisfied or okay with the overall experience of the site – only 10% dissatisfied (CP25, autumn 2011) You may have other experiences – if so we need to know about them Variety of content - videos, webcams, 360 degree virtual tours Associated social media sites branded as D4U and directing people to D4U - blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube Relevant, local, personalised content through the ‘my local’ feature

Myth-busting “ If it’s not on the homepage no-one can find it” Actually 40% of traffic comes direct from search engines Only 15% of visitors go direct to homepage Over 80% of visits don’t even include the homepage “The search doesn’t work very well” It’s as good as you make it – optimising your content so the search will return it is VITAL “Our pages don’t get much traffic” Are you presenting info in the best way? Do you have the right people as web editors (it’s a skill)? Do people want/need to know it? Do you regularly review and update content? The web is your shop window – use it to its full potential

How do you sell your services online? Make sure your web content is GOOD – short, sharp, snappy and search engine-friendly Use social media to generate interest and drive traffic back to your main D4U pages Use the functionality available to help you improve presentation Engage with customers through online comments / feedback

Over to you... What elements of your service could you ‘market’ online using the tools we’ve talked about? How could you better use the web to free up time and money and prioritise other projects? E.g. what could you ‘automate’ so that staff can get on with other work? What elements of your service would be suitable for promotion through Facebook/Twitter/Youtube? What might be the drawbacks of this? What added functionality would you like to see developed on dorsetforyou.com?